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Initial Step to Connect Python with SQL Server

Before starting this guide on connecting Python with SQL Server, you must have Primavera P6 previously set up in an SQL Server database. If you haven’t done so yet, have a look at our article on how to set up a Microsoft SQL Server database for Primavera P6 Professional first. Similarly, you should have Python installed on your computer. And if everything is ready, let’s begin.

Setting up a New “Login” in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

Access Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

The next step to connect Python with SQL Server is to open the database manager, Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, from your computer’s “Start” menu. In the window that appears, titled “Connect to Server,” select the name of the server where the Primavera P6 database you are working with is located, and press the “Connect” button.

It’s Time to Create a New “Login” to Connect from Python

Create a new Login now. To do this, you need to navigate to the “Logins” folder, located within the “Security” folder. Once there, right-click on the “Logins” folder and select the option “New Login”.

Configure Your New “Login”

A new window called “Login-New” will appear, where you will see a series of pages to navigate in the top-left corner. First, go to the page called “General”. Here, you must specify a login name. In our case, we selected “project2080”. Select the “SQL Server authentication” option and add a password. We chose “Project*2080” as the password. Remember to note this down because you will need these two pieces of information when connecting from Python. In the field for “Default database”, select the database you use for Primavera P6 Professional. In our case, it’s “PROJECT2080”.

In the “Server Roles” page, make sure to tick the “sysadmin” role. The “public” option is selected by default and can remain checked if your profile is public.

Ensure that in each of the following windows, you make the same selections as shown below.

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Finally, on the “Status” page, make sure the options shown in the following screenshot are selected. Press “Ok” to continue.

Once the window has closed, close the connection and reopen it. You will have completed the access setup and can now start connecting to SQL Server from Python.

How to Create a Connection with SQL Server from Python

After creating the new “Login”, it’s time to connect Python with SQL Server. Open a new Python notebook and create a connection to SQL Server. This way, you’ll have full access to the tables, fields, and records of the Primavera P6 database.

Setting Up the Environment in Python

In this first step, we will import the libraries needed to establish the connection between Python and SQL Server. For this article, we will only need the “pyodbc” and “pandas” libraries, as shown in the following code snippet.

Create a Connection with SQL Server

To work with the Primavera P6 database (in our case, it’s called “PROJECT2080”) hosted on `SQL Server`, we’ll create a connection using the `project2080` user we set up earlier. You’ll also need to download and install the ODBC driver for SQL Server to enable the connection using Python’s “pyodbc” library.

Use the following Python code and ensure you set the four variables according to your own configuration on your computer.

Create DataFrames Based on Queries to the Database

Next, we will create two DataFrames:

1. The first DataFrame will display the tables in our P6 database.
2. The second DataFrame will refer to the fields or columns of the database.

To achieve this, it will be necessary to create a cursor for the connection to store information in memory. Using queries, we will access the tables in our Primavera P6 Professional database. Finally, we will save these queries as DataFrames to inspect them later. Below, you can see the Python code to use.

Make sure to close the cursor.

After Connecting Python to SQL Server: Inspect the Data

We now have two DataFrames saved: one that references the tables in our database and another that references the columns. In this final step, we will inspect both DataFrames to see what kind of data we’ve retrieved. For a basic inspection, we’ll use the .info() and .sample() functions.

As you can see, we now have a lot of information about the table DataFrame (df_tablas) using the .info() function. There are 404 entries ranging from 0 to 403. The total number of columns is 4, identified by an index number (#), the column name (“Column”), the number of non-null values (“Non-Null Count”), and the data type (“Dtype”). Our tables contain no null values, and the data type is “object”. Lastly, we can see that 12.8 kB of memory has been used.

When we use the .sample() function, we see a random sample of 10 rows from our table DataFrame (df_tablas). By specifying the number 10 inside the parentheses, we are instructing Python to return only 10 rows from the DataFrame.

If you’d like to learn how to inspect the DataFrame containing the columns from our Primavera P6 database, you can download the complete notebook on how to connect Python with SQL Server. It also includes some basic filters to identify the “Primary Key” columns for each table in the P6 database.

AT PROJECT 2080, WE’D LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

We told you we were going to start applying Data Science and Deep Learning to Project Planning and Control, and we’ve delivered. Connecting Python with SQL Server is just the first step. Perhaps you won’t become a Python programming expert or an SQL guru, but you’ll have all the tools you need to perform an exhaustive analysis of your activity schedules, identify patterns, and conduct predictive analysis of your projects. And we’re here to teach you how. So, if you haven’t done so yet:

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The post Connect Python with SQL Server was first published on Project 2080.

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Why connect the Primavera P6 XER file with Power BI

The era of dynamic reports based on Business Intelligence and the massive crossing of different databases has opened a new path for us in the world of project planning and project control reports. Generating reports thanks to the data obtained from the Primavera P6 planning and project controls tool has never been an easier task. In the post we released about how to connect Primavera P6 with Power BI, we already taught you how to create reports in Power BI thanks to the connection with Excel sheets.

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The use of excel spreadsheets is a process that, today, is certainly friendly for most users. However, it can become a process that generates errors more easily or is not 100% automatic. That’s why we think that working directly with XER files as data sources will save us a lot of manual work in the long run and greatly reduce the risks that come with working with manually created spreadsheets.

Before showing you how to connect the Primavera P6 XER file to Power BI, let’s see what’s behind the native XER file of this powerful project planning and control tool that is Primavera P6.

What to find in a Primavera P6 XER file

How is data stored in the Primavera P6 database

The Primavera P6 project planning tool database stores all data in more than 170 tables. Each of these tables contains different fields which in turn contain records. These tables are referenced to each other through relationships between a Primary Key and a Foreign Key. Despite the large number of tables that the Primavera P6 database contains, we should be more familiar with only 20 of them.

It should be noted that calculated fields are not stored in the Primavera database, since they are calculated based on other fields in the database.

Example of where data is written to the Primavera database

Next, we are going to see an example that shows how the data that we enter in P6 is stored within its database. To do this, we will base ourselves on the Activity Code called Project 2080.

The data is stored in the tables, fields, and records of the database, as we mentioned before. In this example, the Activity Code that we have called “Project 2080” is stored in the table (%T) “ACTVTYPE“, inside the field (%F) “actv_code_type_id“, with a unique code as a record (%R) of value “1986“. With the help of Excel, this is what it would look like:

As for the different values within the Activity Code “Projet 2080“, these are stored within the table (%T) “ACTVCODE“, as shown in the following screenshot:

Note that the Primary Key in the ACTVTYPE table (1986) becomes the Foreign Key in the ACTVCODE table. This will make both tables related to each other, something that will help us when relating tables in Power BI.

What is Primavera P6 XER file

Primavera P6 is capable of working with different types of formats, such as XML, XLSX (Spread Sheet), or MPX (Microsoft Project) to exchange data related to project scheduling. However, the file that characterizes Primavera P6 is the XER file. The XER file is a CVS-type file, with tab delimiters (TAB). In other words, the XER file is a text file with tabulated data that you can open and modify in any text editor or other software that reads CVS files. Before moving on to work with the Primavera XER file in Power BI, let’s show you how you can open and view this file in Excel.

How to open and view an XER file in Excel

As it is a text file, the XER file can be opened using a note editor and even using the Excel tool, as we will see below, through the “From Text / CSV” option:

Once we have clicked on this option, we select the XER file that we want to import and a new window called “Power Query Editor” will open. Our file will appear in it, but still without format. To do this, we will select the file and press the right button of our mouse so that a drop-down appears where we will select the “CSV” option:

At this time, only two columns will appear. In order to see all the columns, we will use the property of the XER files, which we know are tabulated text files. We will go to the option to “split columns“, by delimiter:

In the window that appears, we will select the “Tab” option as the delimiter, as shown below:

In the following image we can already see how all the columns that are part of the XER file that we export from Primavera P6 are shown:

We can now click the Close and Load the file button in the upper left corner to be able to see the XER file as a single table in our Excel tool:

Before going on to see how to connect the Primavera P6 XER file to Power BI, we want to mention that this file always has the same structure, regardless of whether it is a file with data from one, two, or more projects. The structure is always the same and there are certain attributes of the table that are important to know before moving on to the next point.

If we look at the first column of the table that we have obtained when opening the XER file in Excel, we see that there are four attributes:

1. %T: to refer to tables
2. %F: to refer to fields
3. %R: when referring to registers
4. %E: refers to the last row of the XER file of P6

Therefore, if we want to know the list of tables that our native Primavera P6 file contains, we just have to filter the first column by “%T“:

How to connect Primavera P6 XER file to Power BI in 4 steps

If you’ve reached this point, we’re sure you already have a much deeper understanding of Primavera P6 XER files than you did before coming to this post. It’s time to put these insights into practice and start connecting your Primavera P6 XER files with Power BI. The objective is none other than to fully automate your reporting system and save as much time as possible month after month.

Step 1: Open Power BI

First, we will open Power BI and save the file with the appropriate name. In our case, we have called this file “connect Primavera P6 XER file with Power BI”.

Step 2: Export your Primavera P6 projects to XER format

Next, already in Primavera P6, we will select and open those projects that interest us to generate our reports in Power BI. Once opened, we will export them in XER format. It is worth mentioning that there are up to three types of data to export: projects, only resources, or only roles. Selecting one or the other data set will only influence the number of tables that make up the XER file. For this article, we have chosen the option to export project data.

Step 3: Get the data from the XER file in Power BI

Back in Power BI, let’s start working with the XER file. We will import the data from the XER file into Power BI and work with it in the query editor. To do this, the first step is to import the XER text file. Click on “Get Data” and select the “Text or CVS” option. As they are files with a .XER extension, we must select the option to see “all files” and we will select the XER file that we have previously created.

The “Power Query Editor” will have opened, just as it happened before when we imported the file into Excel. We will follow exactly the same steps that we saw above when we talked about how to open and view an XER file in Excel (let’s refresh our memory: we must select the icon inside the “Power Query Editor” window, and with the right mouse button select the “CSV” option. At this time it will be transformed into a table with two columns. Next, we will select the first column (“Column 1”), and select HOME-Split Column-By Delimiter. We will select the “Tab” delimiter since the XER files are CSV-type files with TAB, and split at “each occurrence of the delimiter”). However, in this case we won’t hit the “Close and apply” button yet.

The second step consists of making a series of adjustments in this query. First, we will add a conditional column. The condition will be that if a %T appears in column 1.1, then it returns the name of the table that comes in Column 1.2:

Once this new column is created, we will select it and go to Transform – Fill Down:

Next, we’ll move the column between Column 1.1 and Column 1.2 and name it “Table”:

Lastly, we will filter Column 1.1, selecting everything except ERMHDR, %E, and %T:

Step 4: extract the tables from the XER file

In this step, we are going to start extracting tables, along with their particular fields and records. Since we don’t want this post to take longer than necessary, we are only going to extract the ACTVCODE table as an example. Once we know how to extract a table, the rest of the tables would be extracted in the same way, always using the same table from the XER file that we have exported from Primavera P6 as the data source.

We’ll start by creating a reference to the XER file query we just created in the previous steps. To do this, we will select the original query and with the right mouse button we will select “Reference“. We will create as many references as tables of the XER files that we want to have at our disposal.

Once we rename this new query by the name of the table that we are going to create (in this case it would be ACTVCODE), we will filter the column that we call “Table” by the name of our table and we will select Transform – Use the first row as a header:

In order to have a table as clean as possible, we will eliminate those columns that we do not need, as well as those that are empty or have null values in them.

Finally, we will change the format of the columns as appropriate, paying more attention to date formats and decimal numbers for those fields that refer to quantities.

TIP OF THE DAY: in certain formats, the commas and periods may vary when we fetch information from the XER files. Our recommendation is that you select all the columns where there is a decimal delimiter that refers to amounts and in Transform – Replace values you change the points by commas. In this way, when changing the data type to a decimal number you will not lose the decimals.

And that’s all. Now you can Close and apply to be able to see all the changes in both the Report view, Data view, and Model view.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

You have just taken a big step as a project planner and project manager. Perhaps you are not yet aware of the great change that is coming in your professional life, but from now on the reports you were preparing will take on a new dimension. The universe of dynamic reports welcomes you. And all this without the need to link the Primavera P6 database with Power BI. Now it’s just a matter of knowing which XER file tables you’ll need to generate those reports that your peers will envy. And you know what? That we will help you with it.

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The post Connect the Primavera P6 XER file to Power BI was first published on Project 2080.

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What is an Extension of Time Claim in a contract?

An Extension of Time Claim is a claim for an extension of time due to delay that could not reasonably be foreseen at the time the contract was signed. Granting an extension of time releases the contractor from liability for damages such as liquidated damages from the original contract completion date for the claim period. In other words, an EOT Claim is a document that allows us to justify, claim and obtain a change in the time frame in which our project fits.

When do we have the right to claim an EoT in a contract?

During the execution of a project, as long as it is specified in the contract, we will have the right to claim an Extension of Time when there is a delay in the completion of our project due to a cause beyond our control. It is at this time that we must notify our client or the contract administrator, clearly identifying the event that caused said delay, its nature, as well as the negative impact on the final milestone of project completion that has been agreed in the contractual baseline of the draft.

It will depend on each project, but in general, a first letter is sent to the client notifying that a delay has been incurred due to an element foreign to us. After sending this first notification, the EoT Claim itself is sent, with all the information that is necessary to be able to extend the project execution period in time.

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What is the purpose of an Extension of Time Claim?

The purpose of an EOT Claim is to have a contractual tool that allows us to request a change in the contractual duration of our project. Thanks to the Extension of Time Claim we will establish a relationship of events whose cause-effect will directly impact the execution of the project.

How to be successful with Extension of Time Claims?

From our point of view, the most important element to be successful with Extension of Time Claims in a contract is to have a very good and detailed project baseline before starting any activity. Once the project baseline has been defined, including resources, work performance, etc. we must be constant in the updating phase of it. In this way, we will be able to identify as soon as possible the different events that impact the contractual date of completion of work on our project.

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The Extension of Time Claim is one of the most important tools when requesting an extension of time in our projects. It will be of great importance to save all the events that impact the completion of our project by creating a Delay Events register. Among all of them, there will be some that are attributed to our client. These are the ones that will give us the right to claim an extension of the time frame of our project. Finally, thanks to the delay analysis technique that we use, we will be able to calculate the delay of the project and how much of it can be attributed to the different parties (client, contractor, etc.).

The post What is an Extension of Time Claim in a contract? was first published on Project 2080.

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What is a Key Performance Indicator?

Key Performance Indicators are also called KPIs. These Performance Indicators are a series of metrics that are used in project controls to synthesize our project. The idea is to synthesize in a control panel or dashboard all the information of our project related to the efficiency and productivity of the tasks that are carried out in order to help us make better decisions.

What are KPIs for?

KPIs allow the project team to measure its progress and track performance focused on previously defined objectives. The most appropriate way to display the Key Performance Indicators is through a balanced scorecard. The ultimate goal is to be able to make better decisions during the execution of the project since they will help us to see the trend of the project units under control.

Examples of KPIs in project management

Within a project, you can have very varied KPIs, such as sales KPIs, logistics KPIs, production KPIs, engineering performance indicators, and even health and safety KPIs. Some examples of KPIs would be the concreting ratios, excavation ratios, the health of the project schedule, and the EVM or Earned Value Management. Your experience as a Project Manager will help you choose the best performance indicators for your project.

KPI indicators to measure your schedule

Problems in the execution and health of the activity schedule may include the following points:

• Comparison between the activities that you start and finish with the number of activities that were expected to start or finish in a given period
• Summary of activities in progress
• Percentage increase in the duration of activities
• Number of additional activities or deleted activities
• Any other type of indicator that explains and represents the progress and execution of the project

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What is a Key Performance Indicator within Earned Value Management

We will now explain to you why KPIs are so used within the EVM. Earned Value Management or EVM combines project scope, activity schedule, and cost measures within an integrated system. This system provides us with indicators based on cost. The application of Earned Value Management analysis during the early stages of the project increases the validity and effectiveness of the project baseline, both at the level of activities and cost. Once established, the project baseline underpins understanding of project performance during project execution.

Earned Value Management can be expanded to include the concept of an earned schedule, which provides time-based indicators to complement the cost-based indicators used during project execution.

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Now that you know why KPIs are so important elements within a project, you should learn to identify the performance indicators that best fit yours. Do not forget that the Key Performance Indicators can be used to measure from the progress of a work unit, such as the poured concrete or the kilos of corrugated steel that is placed daily, to the number of casualties due to work accidents or the number of accidents without serious consequences within our project. Remember that absolutely everything is measurable in a project. You just have to find the metric that best suits yours, that is most relevant and that best helps you synthesize the data. Your experience as a Project Manager or as a Project Controls Manager will be of great help to identify the best indicators.

The post What is a Key Performance Indicator? was first published on Project 2080.

Next, we show you the 5 essential people when it comes to controlling a project (plus some other that you will be surprised to see too). Between all of them, they will ensure that the project is being executed according to the project baseline plan. In addition, they will make it possible to compare the progress of the project with the original plan, they will identify possible future problems as soon as possible in order to take corrective actions as soon as possible. Finally, they will help to collect the data necessary to prepare a claim for an extension of time or for the resolution of disputes.

Now, let’s see who does project controls within a project. Are you ready?

Who does Project Controls in a professional way?

The Project Controls Specialist is the person in charge of controlling a project in a professional way. He is not a Project Manager or a Project Controller. The Project Controls specialist is the link between the different functions within a project. He is the person in charge of collecting information, shaping it, and preparing the different progress reports of a project. These reports will carry with them an analysis of the project based on KPIs, project progress curves, and/or resource histrogram.

The information that a Project Controls Specialist must collect is all that related to the schedule of activities, financial information of the project, everything related to the function of Supply Chain Management, as well as information and data on the phase of engineering, quality, and environment, safety and health, and that which was necessary on the project management function itself.

The Project Planning Specialist

Many times the Project Planning Specialist and the Project Controls Specialist are the same person. However, this depends on the nature of the project. In large budget projects, the one who does the control of a project in a professional way is the Project Control Specialist. All tasks related to creating the project baseline, updating the Gantt schedule periodically, analyzing the Gantt Chart, or preparing progress reports using S-curves are performed by the Project Planning Specialist.

The Project Planning Specialist manages the Gantt Schedule using professional project planning software. One of the most widely used project planning software worldwide is Primavera P6, from Oracle. However, there are others like Microsoft Project.

Project Controller: key role for project controls

The third figure Project 2080 considers important when controlling a project is the Project Controller. This figure represents the financial control of the project. The Project Controller must collect from the project baseline preparation phase, and on a regular basis, the financial data of the project, such as project sale, project cost, project margin, risks, opportunities, contingencies, etc.

The Project Controller is the person in charge of creating a code structure to allocate the cost of our project from month to month. This structure must be approved by the Project Manager and distributed to all project participants. These codes must include the cost of labor, machinery, subcontracted equipment, as well as the materials that the project needs to be executed correctly. As a cost control tool, we can talk about SAP, widely used worldwide.

In addition to the financial control that the Project Controller does on a regular basis, it also works together with the Project Planning Specialist to develop the Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS). This structure consists of a series of unique codes that map both with the cost codes described in the previous paragraph and with the codes of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Thanks to the CBS codes, the WBS, and the mapping done with the codes that the Project Controller uses to control project costs, the Project Control Specialist will have the initial structure for the creation of a multitude of reports that cross the data related to the project schedule and the project costs. These data will be the basis for Earned Value Management (EVM).

Project Engineering Manager

Once we have seen the figure of the Project Controls Specialist, Project Planner, and Project Controller, do you know who else does Project Controls? Now let’s talk about the Project Engineering Manager. In other forums, he is called the technical project manager. This is the most important figure within the engineering department of the project. He is in charge of defining the list of deliverables or the list of project drawings. In it, the engineering manager assigns each drawing within the corresponding WBS, which has been previously defined by the project planner. This will make it much easier to track the project month by month as the project planner will be able to identify these plans within the Gantt schedule.

In addition, the Project Engineering Manager of the project will be in charge of distributing the engineering tasks among his work team. In this way, he will be able to provide the Project Planning Specialist and Project Controls Specialist with the assessment of his own resources.

Thanks to the list of drawings and the assessment of own engineering resources, the project planner can assign the workload of the engineering phase to each task. It should be noted that the technical manager must review and approve the project baseline. Said commitment must be with the dates, activities to be carried out, as well as with the valuation of own resources.

Supply Chain Manager

As with the Project Engineering Manager, the Supply Chain Manager feeds key data to both the Project Planning Specialist and the Project Controller. The purchasing and logistics phase will be defined during the project baseline creation phase. In this process, there is a commitment from the Supply Chain Manager with the work schedule. The activities of the Supply Chain will give us information about the dates on which the orders were placed, the manufacturing periods, intermediate milestones, as well as the delivery on site of each of the supplies.

As in any other phase of the project, the entire scope related to the supply chain will be distributed according to the Work Breakdown Structure. Likewise, said scope will be coded using the CBS (Cost Breakdown Structure) codes. Finally, the allocation of the costs will come to the hands of the Project Controller, in order to update the financial and cost management program of the project.

Any other roles who does Project Controls

In addition to the 5 professionals in project management that we have described above, additionally, we want to talk about other figures who also contribute their grain of sand when Project Controls is carried out.

Responsible for Health, Safety, and Environment within Project Controls

Both health and safety, as well as the environment, are aspects of very high importance during the execution of a project. That is why during the Project Controls phase it is necessary to see the progress of the different KPIs that have been defined at the beginning of the project. As in the previous cases, the HSE Manager will be in charge of providing all the necessary information to the Project Control Specialist.

Responsible for Risks, Opportunities, and Contingencies

The importance of ROC (Risk, Opportunities & Contingencies) comes from the idea of ​​anticipating the future. Both from the point of being able to mitigate risks, and from the fact of seeing opportunities that help us improve the margin of our project. It is a continuous process that begins in the bidding or offer phase. On a monthly basis, we will have to monitor the risks, opportunities, and contingencies of our project. Typically this is a Project Manager role. However, there may be cases in which it is necessary to create this position within a project, due to its size. Correctly managing risk, opportunities and contingencies is the task of the entire project team. After all, they are all part of the ROC, to a greater or lesser extent.

Head of Change Management

Last but not least, we will talk about the person in charge of Change Management. There are projects that, due to their large size, require a person to manage change within a project. These changes can impact both the cost and the term of the project. In some cases, the changes are due to modifications in the scope of the project. Other times, they are changes that refer to unit costs. What is clear is that we will need to monitor and control these changes due to their impact on the project. The management of change should be reflected both at the financial level and at the level of the schedule of activities.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

Project Controls takes us to a higher level within project management. This is thanks to the information that is obtained on a regular basis from the different managers of the project. This information allows the Project Manager to manage the project, monitor it more closely, and be able to inform in advance of the different actions to be taken to reduce the risk level of the project. In short, Project Control helps us to anticipate problems and have enough reaction time to solve them without impacting the cost, quality, and time of the project. That is why a good multidisciplinary team, and specialist in each of its tasks, is necessary to be able to meet the objectives set in the project’s baseline.

The post Who does Project Controls? was first published on Project 2080.

Step 1: to create project baseline

What is Project Controls process is the keyword. However, do you know how to project controls with no knowledge about what we want to control within the project? This is a tough task to implement. If we do not have a good project baseline, we will not be able to properly monitor and control the project. In other of our posts, we already talked about what a project baseline is. But what is project controls process taking into account the project baseline?

Our project baseline must be able to clearly encompass the scope of the project, the resources necessary for the execution of the project, as well as the costs of the project. These are the three project monitoring and control mechanisms that we use in Project 2080. Our experience tells us that these three pillars support a solid project baseline, which is the foundation of adequate project monitoring and control.

The critical path of the project

Finally, the project baseline will be that initial photograph against which we will compare the progress of our project on a regular basis. Thanks to this first baseline activity schedule, we will know the critical path of our project, the key to monitoring and controlling the most critical activities of our project. If you want, you can refresh your knowledge in our post about what is the critical path of a project.

Step 2: what is Project Controls process thanks to S-Curves

Once we have our baseline activities schedule, the critical path and sub-critical paths of the project, we are in a position to obtain different S-curves of the project. These S-curves owe their name to the fact that when relative values ​​are accumulated at the origin in time, their shape resembles a flat “S”.

The S-curves are obtained once the different resources have been entered into the activities of our schedule. Except for the activities that are part of the critical path, whose float is zero time units, the rest of the activities have some total float. This causes 2 types of curves to be obtained. These S-curves are called the Early Baseline and the Late Baseline.

Finally, we will also be able to obtain S-curves according to the project phase or work package that we want to control and monitor. Below, you can see an example of an S-curve that was used to control a capping beam in the construction of a reinforced concrete decoupling wall:

Earned Value Method

The Earned Value Method is one of the clearest methods for tracking a project. What is Project Controls process thanks to the Earned Value Management? The monitoring and control of a project using the Earned Value methodology is carried out taking into account the different S-curves that are generated during the execution of a project.

Below you can see an interactive chart to refresh your knowledge about Earned Value Management:

Step 3: KPI definition

What is Project Controls process when KPI plays a key role to control and monitor a project? Very easy. The Key Performance Indicators or KPIs are those indicators that are used to measure all kinds of variables of a project, such as the progress of certain phases or work packages that, due to their nature, are necessary to synthesize and analyze regularly. These performance meters help us, therefore, to analyze different elements of the project, as well as to make decisions. They offer us a global and simplified vision of the project.

When defining these performance indicators or KPIs, we must take into account:

• what kind of packages or elements we want to control. For example, a KPI could be the m3 of concrete to be poured on site.
• what data we need and where to get it to obtain the information we need. In the case of our example, the data we need would be obtained through the delivery notes of the concrete tank truck, or the concreting plant.
• assign them an objective value or a range of values in which we must move. Continuing with the previous example, the KPI could be not to concrete less than 2,000 m3 of concrete per day due to the capacity of the concrete plant that supplies us with material on site.
• set the frequency with which they will be analyzed (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). To finish with the previous example, we want to monitor progress on a daily basis.

In the same way that it is done for a project, different target KPIs can also be marked within a project schedule. For example, a performance indicator would be the number of activities with total float of less than 10 days that have been delayed with respect to the update of the previous period. The value should not exceed 2% of the delayed activities in the current period. Another performance measure could be the number of activities with a total float greater than 40 days. In this case, the value should not exceed 5% of the total activities.

Step 4: dashboard

Once the project baseline has been created, the S-curves have been generated after incorporating resources into the activities within the baseline schedule, and the Key Performance Indicators have been defined to measure some project variables, do you know how it is carried out? the control of a project in the most optimal way possible, quantitatively speaking? Through a control panel, also called a scorecard or dashboard.

The dashboard is the tool that will help us to know, from a quantitative point of view, the situation of the project based on its main control metrics. These metrics will be compared with the objectives set at the beginning of the project.

It should be said that the dashboards or control panels can be made globally within the project, or individually for each of its phases. In this way, we might have an operational control panel. However, we might have a control panel for monitoring and control of the engineering, purchasing, and logistics phase, construction phase, etc. In all of them, it is important to never forget the objectives that were set during the project baseline preparation phase, as well as implementation dates, delays, responsible for controlling each objective, as well as any type of comment or additional material that complement the dashboard.

Step 5: project follow-up meetings

During the follow-up meetings, the objective will be to collect all the necessary information on the current situation of the project, the status of risks and opportunities, and the progress of ongoing activities. The intention is to see possible deviations, in addition to whether any risk or opportunity has been generated in the project that we must begin to control.

Follow-up meetings are held periodically. The nature of the project, its level of risk or criticality, or its budget will help us better assess how often these follow-up meetings will be held. You should not confuse a follow-up meeting with a collaborative planning meeting.

It is in these meetings where the 4 previous steps are put on the table to carry out the monitoring and control of your project. The KPIs are analyzed. The current situation is compared with the project baseline. And finally, we also look at the different S-curves of progress or the analysis of the added value of the project. Normally, these meetings are attended by the heads of each department, as well as the person responsible for planning and project control.

Once the follow-up meeting is over, all the parties involved are informed of the countermeasures or active measures to be carried out during the following period.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

At this point, we believe that you already know everything you need to know about what is Project Controls process in 5 easy steps. However, your opinion interests us. Therefore, if in addition to the project baseline, the S-curves, the definition of the KPIs, the control panel, or the follow-up meetings, you think there is something else that escapes us, leave us a comment below. And remember, almost anything can be measured, controlled, and tracked.

The post What is Project Controls process? was first published on Project 2080.

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Primavera P6 Database architecture types

First of all, we are going to see the two types of architectures under which the Oracle Primavera P6 tool works:

1. Client-Server Architecture: this is an architecture that covers a larger user size, as well as large volumes of information. In this type of architecture, the Primavera P6 software depends on a process started on a server. The six features that the client-server architecture offers us are:
   • higher scalability
   • greater performance
   • higher availability
   • greater security
   • greater integration
   • higher operability
2. “Standalone” Architecture: it is an architecture designed to work with an “express” database, since it works locally and without the need for a network connection. The great advantage of this architecture is that they are free versions and that you can download them from the Oracle website. In contrast, the size of the database does not exceed 10 Gb. In this case, Primavera P6 works as a separate and independent process, and not as part of an existing process.

Once you know the two types of architecture with which the Oracle tool works, you must assess what size, type and version of primavera p6 database your organization needs, as a previous and necessary point before installing the Primavera P6 software. You should also know that the Oracle Primavera P6 tool is capable of working with the following databases:

1. Oracle Database
2. Microsoft SQL Server / SQL Express
3. P6 Pro Cloud Connect
4. P6 Pro Standalone (SQLite)

Due to the educational and informative nature of this post, we will focus on the database installed as “P6 Pro Standalone (SQLite)“. This is the Primavera P6 Database type that any user who wants to learn how to use the Primavera P6 software from Oracle can install on their home computer, completely free of charge.

How to connect Primavera P6 Database to Power BI

First of all, what do you need to connect the Primavera P6 Database?

Step 1: Primavera P6 Database configuration

First of all, having configured the P6 Pro Standalone (SQLite) DB when installing the Primavera P6 scheduling tool on your computer.

Step 2: SQLite ODBC Driver (64 bit) installation

Second, you must have the SQLite ODBC Driver (64 bit) on your computer. This is necessary since the connection of the Primavera P6 Database to Power BI will be done through the “ODBC” option, as shown below:

Within the driver download website you will have to download the highlighted file shown below and install, selecting all features:

Once the drivers are installed, you will have to download the following installer for the Windows version “w64” and install all the components:

Step 3: ODBC Data Source configuration

To do this, go to the start menu, search for “ODBC Data Source (64-bit)” and open it.

Once open, in the “User DSN” tab, highlight the option “dBASE Files” and click on the “Add …” button:

In the window that opens, we select the option “SQLite3 ODBC Driver” and we finish:

Then the last window will open where we must enter the name of the data source with which we want our Primavera P6 DB to be displayed, in addition to selecting the corresponding Primavera P6 Database file on our laptop:

Once this is done, we click OK, and OK again. We already have our Primavera P6 SQL Database configured as ODBC. Let’s move on to Power BI to connect our Primavera P6 database and view all the tables included in it.

Step 4: get and transform data in Power BI through ODBC

We have already done the most complicated thing, which is to configure our Primavera P6 Database so that it can be read by Power BI as an ODBC data source. Now we have to open Power BI Desktop and go to the “Transform Data” query option:

Once inside the Power Query Editor, we will select ODBC as the new origin and we will connect:

A new window will open where you can select your Primavera P6 Database as configured above. In our case, the Primavera P6 SQL Database is called “Project 2080”:

Once we accept, the work is done: we will have access to all the tables in our Primavera P6 Database. From here on, we can select those tables that most interest us, depending on the type of reports or dashboards that we want to develop:

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

Remember that the Oracle Primavera P6 software tables are normalized and there are more than 170 different ones. Each of these tables contains different fields and it is where the data is stored. Since both the name of the tables and the fields within each table can be confusing, we want to give you access to the Oracle mapping website where you will find the meaning of each of the elements of these tables that make up the base of data from Primavera P6. Also, note that the calculated fields are not stored in the Primavera P6 Database.

The post Connect Primavera P6 ❰❰SQL DATABASE❱❱ to Power BI was first published on Project 2080.

What is Power BI?

Power BI, according to Microsoft’s official website, “is a cloud-based business analytics service that provides you with a single view of the most crucial data in your business“. Power Bi helps us create dynamic and interactive dashboards. Powered through data sources such as Excel spreadsheets, cloud services, streaming data, and local databases. All this, located in the cloud and capable of keeping us informed in real-time, through a holistic view of the key metrics of your project or portfolio. With that said, and before we show you how to connect Primavera P6 to Power Bi, let’s see why Power BI is so important for planning and project controls.

Why is Power BI so important for Planning and Project Controls?

Power BI is important for the planning and project controls industry as it helps us provide a better service when it comes to preparing reports and dashboards for our clients. Dashboards based on the data analysis that feed our activity schedules, such as durations, dates, milestones, resources, costs, etc. In this way, we can even prepare reports about how to do the project schedule quality assessment in our portfolio.

Planning and Project Controls have never experienced this evolution and improvement before. Our analysis function, based on the data that feeds us every day, and our help and support in making decisions within our projects, we are now able to do it in real-time, with reports in the cloud, on our mobiles.

And what about the artificial intelligence of Power BI. We can ask you questions like “what are the activities with a Soft Constraint?” and get an impressive, interactive visualization in return. Natural language has reached the planning and project controls industry.

In addition, we will now be able, on a single platform, to create and publish content packages for specific teams, clients, or entire organizations. Content personalization is no longer just a Netflix thing. Project 2080 has joined the bandwagon of content personalization related to planning and project controls. In this post, we are showing you the first steps, and the necessary tools to connect Primavera P6 to Power BI.

Chaos is over. Project 2080 puts the future of project management in the palm of your hand. We will make the most complex reports and topics of your projects attractive and accessible, and help you in your decision making.

Different ways to access Power BI

Currently, Power Bi has different products at our disposal:

• Power BI Desktop: the desktop version of Power BI. In it you will have access to all the necessary functionalities to develop your reports, such as connecting data sources, preparing, adapting, and modeling the data with ease. All this with the sole purpose of being able to analyze data, find patterns, and prepare interactive and personalized reports for your project team.
• Power BI Pro: through this option, you will be able to carry out more efficient data-driven collaboration. Share visualizations, distribute findings, access visualizations on the go, improve collaboration through team feedback, and even subscribe to content to stay up-to-date.
• Power BI Premium: offering an advanced self-service data preparation solution that enables all users and organizations to accelerate knowledge delivery and collaborate with ease.
• Power BI Mobile: take the knowledge with you anywhere. Always be connected to the data, wherever your projects take you. Mobile business intelligence is just a touch away.
• Power BI Embedded: utility to add your analytics and interactive reports to your own tools or websites.
• Power BI Report Server: this is the on-premises solution that enables you to create reports today, with the flexibility to move to the cloud tomorrow.

Learn to connect Primavera P6 to Power BI

Once we have shown you what Power BI is, including the different alternatives to access it, and we have seen the importance of Power BI in the field of planning and project controls, let’s move on to know how to connect Primavera P6 to Power BI.

A person who works in the planning and project control department of a company with the Primavera P6 tool, or another similar one, will know the importance of filters and the multiple ways to group and sort the data of our project. In other words, the planner is used to segmenting the project by different codes, by dates, by durations, by criticality, etc. A static model, at the same time complicated, to show the data in a view that we could even save it as a template or layout in P6.

It is there where Power BI opens a new path in the field of planning and project controls through its dynamic and intelligent visualizations. Do you want to show your activities within a range of dates? Would you like to know which are the 5 most critical activities within the foundations´WBS? Would you like to know what is the progress of the engineering phase of your project? All of this is within your reach, but it needs some prior preparation. Let’s start with the beginning.

Before we start with the step-by-step guide to connect Primavera P6 to Power Bi, we want you to know that there are 3 methods to get data from Oracle Primavera P6 planning tool to Microsoft Power BI:

1. Copy the data from Primavera P6 and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet
2. Use the Primavera P6 reporting tool and export it to a “.csv” file
3. Connect Primavera P6 Database to Power BI

In this post, we will talk about the first method: “copy the data from Primavera P6 and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet”. However, we will cover the other two methods in depth in coming posts on our planning and project controls blog so that you can choose between any of them. Let´s go with the step-by-step guide to connect Primavera P6 to Power Bi.

Step 1: export data from Primavera P6 to Excel

First, we will copy the data from P6 and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet, both for the data in the “Projects” window:

and data in the “Activities” window in P6:

Note that we have configured the columns to display. The columns of the “Projects” window that we have copied are the following:

Regarding the “Activities” window, we have selected the following columns:

It is important to remember that when copying the data, within the preferences of the Primavera P6 user, we do not show either unit label or duration label:

In the same way, within “User Preferences”, on the “Dates” tab, set the format aligned with the date settings in Excel and Power BI. In our case, the settings and configuration are as follows:

Once the data has been copied into Excel, it is time to create pivot tables of this data, since we are interested in taking the table already created. As you know, Primavera P6 identifies certain “events” on their dates (Start and Finish) with different characters. For example, it uses the character “A” to tell us that this activity´s date is declared as complete. P6 also uses the “*” character to identify which activity has some kind of constraint such as “Finish On”, “As Late As Possible”, etc. In order to not having issues with these special characters when transforming the data in Power BI, we must remove them from our pivot table.

In our case, we use three tabs within our Excel files: “Instructions”, to explain how to copy and paste data; “Paste from P6”, to copy the data as text; and “PBI Schedule Quality”, where we place the formulated pivot table. In the tab where the pivot table is located, the cells that correspond to the columns relative to dates, on top of giving them a date format, we formulate them as follows to eliminate the characters that represent the constraints or status mentioned in the previous paragraph:

Step 2: get data in Power BI

Once we add the Primavera P6 data in an Excel spreadsheet, it’s time to bring it to Power BI. To do this, within Power BI Desktop, we will go Start / Transform Data, since we will have to do certain transformations of our original pivot table in Excel:

Next, we will create a new query and select, as a new data source, the “Excel” option:

Once you select the file where you have your pivot table, a browser will open where the sheets of your file will appear, as well as the tables that you have created. In our case, we will select the table:

Thus, we have just linked our Excel file with Power BI.

Step 3: transform data with Power Query Editor

They would now be connected and ready to work in the Power Query Editor. From now on, our ability to transform data within Power BI would come into play: managing columns, reducing rows, sorting fields, dividing columns, grouping, combining queries, and other functions related to artificial intelligence. Once we have configured our new query we can “Close and apply”:

Step 4: model data

A step prior to starting the development of our dashboard in Power BI consists of modeling the data sources and managing the relationships between them. This is where some of the magic of Power BI lies. A feature that opens a new world for planning and project controls specialists. To be able to model, we will go to the “Model” tab that is located on the left-hand side of our screen and we will begin to link the different tables.

We must distinguish three different types of tables. There will be tables called “Lookup Tables”, which will help us to segment our visualizations; “Data Table” or “Fact Table”, where all the data to be analyzed stay (dates, number of activities, relationships, etc.); and the “Measure Table”, which represent the measurements that we have created to be represented in our visualization or dashboard. In our example, the tables and relationships we have created are:

Step 5: create new measures

This step is where the data calculation is. The creation of measures will dynamically perform calculations based on the data in our “Data Table” or “Fact Table”. Measures are a key and powerful Power BI point since they will allow us to display almost any type of data within our dashboard. For the example in this post, the measures we have created refer to each of the 14 points that the DCMA takes into account for assessing the quality of project schedules. If you want to know more about this topic, you can take a look at our post about how to do the project schedule quality assessment.

Step 6: Power BI visualizations to create your dashboard

We are now in a position to unleash our creativity and start assembling our dashboard in Power BI. To do this, we must make use of the visualizations that Microsoft Power BI offers us, in addition to other elements such as text boxes, geometric figures, etc.

Step 7: once you connect Primavera P6 to Power BI, it´s time to publish

Last but not least, we get to the point where we will display our new dashboard. A scorecard made in Power BI with data that comes from the Primavera P6 planning tool to our project team. This will serve to analyze in a more dynamic way and in real-time, the status of our projects. To do this, you simply have to go to the “Publish” option. Voilá, our new report will go from Power BI Desktop to be visible on our organization’s Power BI website.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

The era of Power BI has arrived. The planning and project controls have taken a quality leap never seen before. Now it is within everyone’s reach to be able to link and crosscheck databases and visualize any type of relevant KPI. Knowing how to connect Primavera P6 to Power BI is only the first step. The creation of models and visualizations in a job that takes some practice and knowing how to unleash our creativity. Once you get it, you will forget all those hours you spent in front of an Excel sheet.

The post Connect Primavera P6 to Power BI ❰❰EXCEL❱❱ was first published on Project 2080.

Who is René Morkos?

René Morkos is the founder and CEO of Alice Technologies, a company based on Menlo Park (California, United States) and offering solutions, based on artificial intelligence, to the challenges facing the construction industry. René Morkos trained as a Civil and Environmental Engineer at the American University of Beirut. Between 2006 and 2007, he studied a Master in Construction Management at the University of Southern California. Finally, between 2007 and 2013, he got a PhD in Engineering and Construction Management at Stanford University, where he was part of the GAIA group (Green Alliance for Innovative Action). Likewise, he became vice president of the AGS (Associated General Contractors of America), member of the CMAA (Construction Management Association of America), and the DBIA (Design Build Institute of America).

On a professional level, in addition to being the founder of Alice Technologies, he worked as a project engineer, structural analysis engineer, project manager, automation engineer, both in the United States and internationally. Since 2018, he is a professor at Stanford University in the subject of “Management, Manufacturing, and Construction”.

4D Project Management

Project planning is an important part of project management. Until not many years ago, the field of project planning was a two-dimensional task: tasks and time. Gantt charts were born, which reflected these two dimensions. In parallel, the design or engineering of the project was worked on, through design or 3D models. Then, you start to think about integrating scheduling and 3D modeling to create a dynamic 3-dimensional model, where each phase of the physical performance of the project is represented on a timeline. Through these 3D models, we will be able to see how a project is performed over time.

However, a further step is taken, integrating a new dimension to the existing model that represented the activities carried out over time by means of constructive elements. This new dimension would be the cost and all that it entails, such as the management of resources such as labor, machinery, and materials. This is where 4D project management and the BIM era were born. Companies like Synchro have done an enormous work of integrating planning, 3D modeling, and project cost and budget into a single tool, as can be seen in the following video:

What is ALICE?

ALICE is the first platform worldwide, based on artificial intelligence and applied to the construction industry. The acronym ALICE comes from ArtificiaL Intelligence Construction Engineering. It is a generative construction simulator that is capable of ingesting a BIM (Building Information Modeling) model and using a set of rules and algorithms to quickly generate thousands of viable options at the project schedule level, just by pressing a button. In this simulator, it is possible to change parameters in real-time, such as the number of cranes or delays in the execution of activities, in order to instantly see the impact on the activity schedule.

There are four points where ALICE Technologies and its AI focus on to solve complex day-to-day challenges in construction:

1. solve the complex constraints of a project and be able to validate the construction plan;
2. optimize the project’s resources, such as labor, machinery, and equipment, or materials;
3. define and simulate hundreds of possible scenarios throughout the life of a project, in order to find the best way to execute the construction phase;
4. improve, in a matter of minutes and at an early stage of the project, your schedules and construction plans.

Alice Technologies has already worked on infrastructure projects, mining projects, industrial projects, Oil & Gas projects, and Data Centers.

ALICE applied to infrastructure

The artificial intelligence technology applied to project management offered by ALICE has been applied in a budget project of $ 600M. 20 km long highway that included overpasses. In this project, there were two separate work teams: one team working with the Primavera P6 planning and scheduling tool, and another team working with ALICE and its artificial intelligence. Both work teams compared results at the end of the project. After six months of work, the ALICE team became a clear winner thanks to a more optimized and significantly faster schedule of activities. Finally, 69 days of work were saved in the execution of the project thanks to ALICE’s artificial intelligence-based technology.

Another example in which ALICE was much more efficient when executing the project, was in the execution of a complex roof at an airport in Asia. The project had a budget of $ 3B and ALICE achieved a reduction of the execution time of 47 days. In this case, ALICE assessed the different crane positioning and task sequence scenarios. ALICE once again helped the project team reduce execution time and cost.

ALICE applied to mining

In the mining industry, ALICE also shows significant signs of strength compared to traditional project planning. One of the largest mining operations in the world used ALICE’s artificial intelligence to explore resource and manpower optimization strategies, reaching much more efficient utilization points.

ALICE applied to Industrial

The industrial sector, which is nourished by industrial methods and processes, also benefits from ALICE for the execution of high-risk projects. In this case, ALICE’s AI-based technology helps industrial contractors develop much more detailed project plans when execution risk is at its peak.

ALICE applied to Oil & Gas

The Oil & Gas industry is another sector where ALICE’s artificial intelligence can contribute a lot. In this case, ALICE helps refineries to return to normal processes on time, on budget, with the greatest security and with the least amount of unplanned work possible.

ALICE applied to Data Centers

Within the data center construction industry, speed is everything. In this case, simulations based on BIM models help to identify strategies to achieve the project as quickly as possible.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

We are already entering the world of Artificial Intelligence. In this world, there is great room for AI to become part of project management and the construction industry. Companies like ALICE Technologies are making this possible: creating simulations and constructive strategies in just minutes; comparing dozens of options when planning projects; making step-by-step visualizations of activities carried out; and monitoring and optimizing the key resources of a project. Will the planner function as we know it until now end soon, giving way to artificial intelligence? Will our profession need specialists in the management of these new tools to analyze and make decisions? Surely very soon we will have answers to these questions.

The post ALICE project based on Artificial Intelligence was first published on Project 2080.

The described EV Methods can be visualized using a simple Control Account with five work packages. When evaluating work performance, the Planned Value and Earned Value are always determined at the status date

50/50 Earned Value Method

The “50/50 EV Method” is used to simplify the determination of work progress of tasks and work packages.

How to determine the Planned Value (PV)

At the planned start of the work package, the first 50% of the BAC (Budget at Completion) is credited to the PV. The second 50% are attributed at the planned completion to the PV. Throughout the whole period, the Planned Value does not increase. The Planned Value automatically takes the value of 100%, if the planned end date of the work package is in the past.

How to determine the Earned Value (EV)

For the EV, the same procedure applies as for the PV. However, the effective start and end of the work package are decisive for the credit note. At the effective start of the work package, the first 50% of the BAC will be credited as EV. During the remaining time of the work package, this value does not increase. As soon as the work package is completed, the remaining 50% of the budgeted costs are credited to the EV. The “50/50 EV Method” is essentially a compromise between the 0/100 EV Method and the estimation of the degree of completion.

In the “50/50 EV Method” performance is often overestimated in the first half of work package duration, but underestimated in the second half. Therefore, this method should only be used for short work packages that are started and completed within two consecutive reporting periods.

0/100 Earned Value Method

“0/100 EV Method” is a special case of the “Percent Start/Percent Finish Earned Value Method”. It is used for short wok packages/activities that are completed within one reporting period.

The “0/100 Earned Value Method” works with a very careful evaluation of the work performance. Therefore, it is unsuitable for projects with few work packages, as this can lead to significant distortions of reality. So it may happen that the total work progress has a constant value for a certain time. If several work packages are completed at the same time, there will be a large leap in work progress. However, this method is very useful for projects with many small and short work packages as well as short reporting cycles.

The “0/100 EV Method” is the most conservative Earned Value Method to evaluate project performance, as it tends to underestimate the work progress of the project. This fact makes it the safest of all Earned Valued Methods.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

There are several Earned Value Methods used around the world to determine work progress (you can see all of them on our post “Earned Value Methods to evaluate work performance“).

To find out more about earned value methods, earned value methodology, and earned value analysis, do not hesitate to buy the book Earned Value Management, by Roland Wanner.

The post Percent Start/Percent Finish Earned Value Methods was first published on Project 2080.